UK retail game sales surpass music sales

Author: Joe Martin
Published: 4th March 2008
Comments (13) Stumble
Games sales in the UK have now surpassed the sales figures for the music industry.

Games sales in the UK have now surpassed the sales figures for the music industry.

The UK's Entertainment Retailers' Association's latest figures have revealed that video game sales in the UK have now surpassed the sales of the music industry - and are fast catching up to DVD sales.

MCV has posted that UK game sales have gone from £1.3 billion in 2005 to £1.7 billion in sales last year. Music sales meanwhile have gone from £1.8 billion to £1.4 billion in the same time and continue to follow a downward trend.

The DVD and video market meanwhile has plateaued in recent years, producing static sales figures of £2.1 billion for the last three years in a row.

Current projections show that the game industry's growth rate will have it surpass retail movie sales in the very near future.

Oh, and just like NPD figures, these figures only monitor ERA-tracked retail numbers and don't take into account online sales. That's a double edged sword though because, while the ERA stats don't account for increased sales on Steam and Xbox Live, it doesn't count iTunes sales either.

When was the last time you bought a game, an album or a movie? Let us know in the forums.
Quote Mentai 4th March 2008, 10:31
I bought Orange Box (pre ordered to get the early TF2 time :D) and Cod4.
I don't buy music, although I'm thinking about changing that (having seen today that amazon offer DRM free tracks)
I probably buy 1 or 2 dvds a year.
Being a student, the cash needed entertainment isn't exactly readily available. I expect once I graduate I'll become a fully fledged consumer xD
Quote cjoyce1980 4th March 2008, 10:37
I was same Mentai, but 2 years after student life i aint changed one bit
Quote AlexB 4th March 2008, 11:07
Bought ET:QW the other day, COD4, etc. I buy quite a few DVDs, but only from Play, as its cheaper.
Quote Jordan Wise 4th March 2008, 11:15
only album i bought last year was kings of leon: because of the times. Games? i got phantom hourglass, mario kart, geometry wars, ff3, lego star wars, crysis, cod4, orange box, bioshock, world in conflict, c&c3, dawn of war, dark messiah, quake 4, bf2 & spec forces and unreal tournament 3. ok, so i've only had a job for 18 months and its been the only time in my life when i could afford to buy stuff, but still...

edit: forgot my wii, i got cod3 (poor), twighlight princess (awesome) and wii play (poor) for that
Quote cyrilthefish 4th March 2008, 12:01
I brought a 360, and have ended up with 4 games for it, so that'd count as retail

but again the ignoring the downloads thing!

I've brought several xbox arcade games online, pretty much all my PC gaming was online only (steam, wow) and i've even started buying some music online as they've finally given up on the DRM
Quote lewchenko 4th March 2008, 12:06
Ive spent a small fortune on games this year, but only a few have been genuinely worth it. A fair number were at retail as well, but if I can wait then I will order from play.com as it usually saves a bit of money.

Saying that though.. I saw some great deals in Tesco the other day. UT3 for PS3 for £34.99 !!!!! In GAME its 44.99.

As for Album sales... cant even remember the last time I bought an album. Isnt Music free these days ? LOL! Just Kidding!

In the next 5 years I expect all games to be bought online as downloads. The future of retail games sales is non existent.
Quote Penrhos 4th March 2008, 12:27
Buy all my games/music/dvds online, usually direct from USA/Japan Great Dollar exchange rate and a region free DVD player. Only retail purchases recently Orange box from Sainsbury's as it was a bargin.
Quote xrob 4th March 2008, 12:44
im sure the release of the xbox 360, ps3, and the wii/ds has a lot todo with the boost aswell.
Quote mikeuk2004 4th March 2008, 13:00
I bought 25 xbox 360 games last year however I have not bought a music album since 2003 because there isnt much out there i like. This year i have clocked up 4 ps3 games and will be buying a couple of PC games I still need and will continue to buy 360 and PS3 games. I have no interest in buying Music at the moment and will also continue to buy more DVD's :)

I also dont 90% of my buying on line now becuase its so much cheaper and worth the 3 days on average wait for them to arrive.
Quote rjkoneill 4th March 2008, 13:14
all music i buy is direct from bands and distro tables at gigs. this helps smaller bands and lables out

i dont watch many films now - but i have downloaded films if i have a copy on vhs in my loft
[lots of vhs in there]

i spend most of my money on games - pc is download via steam or boxed from cheapest place possible
ps3 is always second hand and cheap as possible - until the good games start coming out im not bothered
xbox360 is always new from cheapest online retailer
Quote AcidJiles 4th March 2008, 13:27
Always buy games unless just to test. Buy quite alot of dvd sets and dvds but hardly any music.
Quote naokaji 5th March 2008, 06:56
buying music? how does one do that? I cant even remember the last time i did it....

dvd's? well, there is a limited supply of good movies, but if a good one shows up in the bargain bin I buy it.

games? in nov 07 i bought several, but since then nothing has been released (except audiosurf) that i bought online so it didnt count.
Quote Bladestorm 5th March 2008, 13:43
I picked up some games in a 3 for £10 offer last week, I think I bought an album something like 7 years ago and I picked up a few cheap DVD's in the january sales.

Generally speaking I tend to spend my money on games and via play.com (or occasionally steam) though.
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